Within the past few years, an electric range having a smooth, planar cooking surface has become increasingly popular. In such a range, the smooth cooking surface is formed of a glass or ceramic sheet with the electric heating elements mounted on the underside of the cooking surface. In order to prevent any substantial losses in heating efficiency, the heating elements must be mounted immediately adjacent the cooking surface and rigidly maintained in positioned. Any lateral movement of the heating element would undesirably misalign the heating element with the cooking vessel placed on the top of the cooking surface. In addition, since the radiated heat inversely varies by the square root of the distance between the heating element and the cooking surface, the heating element must be rigidly clamped to the cooking surface in order to avoid wasting electric energy during the cooking process.
In the past these requirements have made it necessary to employ rather rigid, metal box frames with rivets, etc. to maintain the heating elements aligned in position and rigidly beneath the cooking surface. The prior box-type frame consisted of many individual parts all of which had to be assembled and riveted in position in a time consuming procedure during construction of the range. Thus, it is desired to reduce the number and weight of parts required as well as the assembly time, while also meeting the necessity to maintain the accurate and rigid location of the heating elements with respect to the cooking surface.